With me, please. Mics are hot. I called this meeting to order. Claudia, would you please call Roe? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter is joining us virtual. Can you tell us where you're at and if anyone's near you? Present, and I'm in my hotel room, and there's nobody here. Thank you, sir. Director Duncan? Present. Doctor Gerken? Present. Doctor Kiki? Present. Director Reinhart is joining us virtual as well. Can you please tell us where you're at if anybody's with you? I am in New York at my son and daughter in law's home. They are here,
but not in this room. Thank you, ma'am. Mhmm. Doctor Tasker? Present. And I'm here they're kinda in a separate room, but they'll probably be in and out. It's my parents and my niece. Thank you. Can you let her know that her, audio is not clear? Director Tasca, your audio is a little choppy. Can you check it for us, please? Alright. Can can you hear me okay? That that sounds better, ma'am. Yes. Thank you. And director Tom Moyn. Here. Present. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. Will you please,
join me for the pledge of allegiance? And superintendent, can you please lead us? Pledge Thank you, superintendent. The next item is the approval of the agenda. I'd like to make a motion to approve the agenda. So moved. Right here sec Second. It's been moved by director Tom Wing, seconded by, doctor Gherkin. Padilla, would you please call row? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tomlin?
Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. Okay. This is my favorite part. So for student performance this evening, we'd like to invite, to welcome Gateway High School students. That will be under the direction of, mister Andrew Woods and John Portel. They will be presenting the experience and accomplishment from attending the twenty twenty five State Skill USA and twenty twenty four National Skills USA events. Would you please join me across the hall in Mount Massive?
Thank you. You're welcome to step across the hall and then come back and take the exact same seat that you have now into the boardroom. Thank you. Good evening, members of the board. When I first joined SkillsUSA, I thought it was just a competition. But we quickly learned that it's so much more than that. It's a movement, it's a mindset, and it's a mirror. A mirror that shows us who we are becoming. We've each taken a different path through SkillsUSA, but we all share one thing in common, growth. I am Jasmine Clark. I'll be a senior next year at Gateway High School. When I first joined SchoolsUSA in my freshman year,
I had no idea what to expect. I was nervous, uncertain, and honestly, a little intimidated. I was walking into a competition, setting with no prior experience, going against individuals and teams who all seemed to know what they were doing. I felt like I was stepping into the unknown. But sometimes, the unknown is where we discover who we really are. Traveling to nationals took five days. Yet, I walked away with so much more than I had walked in with. I didn't just learn how to compete. I learned how to communicate. I learned how to collaborate with others and how to present myself professionally.
Most importantly, I started to gain confidence in myself. Those five days were just the beginning of my journey that will continue to challenge and inspire me. We will come back to my journey. I want to let the others speak on what they are going. SkillsUSA isn't just learning how to operate a camera or delivering a broadcast. It's about growth. When I started freshman year, I didn't even know how to write a professional resume. Now I've competed nationally, anchored the news, and grown from a quiet student to a confident communicator. Good evening, members of the board.
My name is Urena Frederick, And at SkillsUSA, a new motto was introduced every year. Freshman year, the theme was our time is now, and that message stayed with me. My team and I created an impactful commercial symbolizing that the theme this theme which helped me place in first. I missed attending sophomore year, but this April, I returned to compete in community service and news television broadcasting. My team and I placed second, and the theme was ignite your potential. This reminded me of how much I've grown and how far I could still go. Annually, these mottos serve as a profound source of motivation driving me for excellence and to
inspire others to do likewise. I ensure this message is I ensure that this message is communicated during my contributions and competitions and to foster a sphere of encouragement and determination. Winning at SKUs USA is more than just a trophy, but reflects the hard work, creativity, and commitment students put in. But it also represents something bigger. It's the dedication of our teachers and the strength of our school community. Every award reflects the guidance, the support, and the belief our educators pour into us. We carry not only our names, but the name of our school and those who helped us grow.
And we are living proof of that. We're students, yes, but we're also producers, anchors, script writers, and leaders. We've grown up in this program. Nationals in Atlanta, that changed my life. Being on that stage, meeting students from all over the country, it reminded me how far I'd come from the nervous freshmen who wanted to hide in the corner. When our team took took homes, took home second in broadcasting, the medal was nice. Yes. But what meant more was the journey, the problem solving, the night spent up, and most importantly, all the laughter. Hello.
I am Lucinda Clemons. I've done SkillsUSA all four years of my high school. And each year, I have learned something new, different, and gained more knowledge to help me continue on through. One of the most unforgettable experiences I had through SkillsUSA was going to nationals in Atlanta. It was my first time traveling out of the country for something like this, and it was truly eye opening. Being in a different environment, meeting students and teams from all over the country, and representing my state on a national level was a moment I'll never forget. The energy, the diversity, the opportunity to connect with so many driven and talented individuals,
it was like nothing I'd ever experienced before. It reminded me that I was a part of something much bigger than myself. That trip to Atlanta showed me just how far I'd come since that freshman year. I had grown from someone who was afraid to speak up to someone who could carry yourself with pride and purpose on a national stage in front of thousands. It gave me memories I'll carry for a lifetime and helped me grow my passion for building a meaningful career and making a difference wherever I go. I found my dream college through SkillsUSA. In this August, I will be going into journalism.
I thought I wasn't gonna be ready, but with the knowledge that I have gained, I'm not unprepared. So as I said, each year has a theme. My favorite theme was our time is now, and we believed in it. Because career and technical education isn't a backup plan. It's a launchpad for leadership, excellence, and opportunity. Members of the board, my name is Weesau Shishu. SkillsUSA gave us not only a space to test our talents, but also to expand them. It challenged us to become professionals, not just students. Not only did not only did we take home several medal medals and banners that day,
but we took with us a level of knowledge and a sense of accomplishment that would not have been possible without CE. As I prepare to begin my journey at DU, I'll bring the skills I will bring with me the skills and talents I learned through CTE. The patience, collaboration, and responsibility that have been woven into me for the past three years will guide me to my success beyond DU and law school. They will teach me not only to become a better professional, but to become a better peer. Graduating early with my associate's degree while being top 2% of my class was not
easy. On days where I felt like giving up or walking away from my dream, I would walk into mister Cortelli's class and be reminded that CTE offers an escape from traditional teaching methods. CTE allows for creativity, inspiration, and for hope. C CTE programs help others get hands on learning from engineering to nursing and nail technicians to professional mathematician. Everyone is welcome at SkillsUSA and being able to have the opportunity to engage with something that it they have interest in and something that is interesting to their future.
This year, I volunteered to represent Aurora Public Schools at the state level of SkillsUSA. At the state conference in May, I was elected to become the vice president of the Colorado chapter of SkillsUSA. I leave again in four days to go to Atlanta for Nationals. Last year, I was there to compete. But now, I'm able to represent and see many different individuals around the country. Becoming a state offer officer is a big responsibility. And I see many different individuals Wait. Sorry. Becoming a state officer is a big responsibility.
And I have gained valuable leadership experience, developed essential skills, and connected with like minded individuals from different CTE organizations. FUSE USA has done so much, not just for me, but for many other individuals. And if it wasn't for this organization, I wouldn't be where I am today, both personally and professionally. Board of Education. By continuing to fund career and technical programs at the Aurora high schools, you're helping create the future leaders and skilled workers of tomorrow. You are giving students a chance to reach their full potential.
We're proud to not just carry our own names, but the name of Gateway High School into every room, every contest, every stage. And tonight, we are honored to have shared that pride with all of you. Thank you. And for a final goodbye, we wanna show you some of our gateway spirit. So say it with me. Once and only. Always and only. Thank thank you to our gateway students, mister Andrew Woods and John Portelli. If you guys could join us back in our main boardroom, we will finish up our board meeting. Thank you again. Can we give the students another round of applause?
We are raising leaders, and I am so proud to serve in this district. Yeah. That's a good segue for our next item, which is recognition, recognizing excellence. Superintendent? Thank you, madam president. Good evening, members of the board, audience members. I echo your sentiment. It's always wonderful to see the brilliance of our young scholars in this district. Along that same vein, I have a number of folks to recognize this evening. So, I'll go ahead and start with the first one, which is Aurora Highlands PH STEM team.
I don't know if anyone from the STEM team is here to represent that team. Give a second just to see. Alright. Well, I'll tell you what. I will read the, recognition, and then we'll make sure that we connect with individuals afterwards. What did you say? I didn't hear what? Oh, okay. Yeah. Come on up then. So in align alignment with board limitation number two regarding the whole child, I'm proud to recognize Mitch Johnson and his Aurora Highlands pH STEM team for being named national finalist in Samsung's solve for tomorrow competition. Their project of an adaptive video game controller designed to improve accessibility for players with
physical disabilities was awe inspiring. What began as a STEM assignment rooted in empathy turned into a real world innovation. Students studied the challenges individuals with physical disabilities face when using standard controllers, Then set out to design a solution. The result, a flat controller with oversized copper wrap buttons that respond to light touch, eliminating the need for fine motor skills and allowing for customization based on each user's needs. Students tested their design with real users and refined it to improve durability and stability.
They earned a $50,000 prize package and proudly represented Colorado in the national competition in DC team in DC. Team, your project is a powerful example of what happens when you combine curiosity, compassion, and creativity. You've shown that a love for video games can spark real change and that you are more than ready to lead the way. So let's give them a round of applause, please, in their absence. Alright. Alright. Next, we're gonna recognize our twenty twenty five Daniels Scholars. And so as I call your name, if you're in the room, please come up when I get to your name.
So in alignment with board result number two regarding graduation, it's my privilege to recognize four graduates who earned the prestigious Daniel Fund scholarship. Juliana Marquez, Ryan Jabber, Lydia Molgueta, and Yahir Moreno Sanchez. Alright. So Juliana, Aurora Central's valedictorian, is a gifted artist whose creativity shines through photography, writing, and music. She lives boldly by the motto, regret is the most useless emotion. Ryan, a Rangeview top 10 graduate, first generation college student, and STEM powerhouse, is excited to study electrical engineering and pursue innovate innovations in a bionic limb technology.
Lydia, a Rangeview graduate, defines her journey in one word, service. She lives up she lives to uplift others locally and abroad and plans to study biology and global health to become a pediatrician. And Yahir, another Rangeview graduate and first generation college student, has his sights set on outer space. As a future aerospace engineer, he dreams of becoming number 21 in CU's long line of astronauts. APS Daniels scholars, we admire your heart, your hustle, and we're excited to see you live out your dreams. Let's give them a round of applause, please. Yes. Let's give them all another round of applause,
please. Our next recognition is really exciting as this is the first year that we've, in a while that we've run this program. So in alignment with board result number two regarding graduation, I'm proud to also recognize Alexis Lopez and Ashley Landaverde Morales, two exceptional Aurora Central High School top 10 graduates whose academic excellence, leadership skills, community service, and noble characters have earned them one of Colorado's most prestigious honors, the Fulbright Betcher Foundation scholarship. Alexis deems this accomplishment a physical representation of years of hard work and dedication.
With a deep desire to give back to her community, she plans to study political science and pursue a law degree. Ashley grew up in low income household and says college felt like a distant dream. Thanks to the support from others, she pushes beyond perceived limits and is on her way to becoming a biological engineer. Alexis and Ashley, your stories are powerful representations of being true barrier breakers. Congratulations, veteran scholars. We can't wait to see the difference that you will make in this world. Let's give them a round of applause. Thank you so much. Thank you. Alright.
Alright. I got a little ahead of myself last time. This is a recognition that's actually new. So we'd like to thank our very first class of APS Leadership Institute allies. Please come up when I call your name. I don't know who all is in the room, but I'll go through the list pretty quickly here. Daniel Sampson, David King, Gertie Black King, Gloria Rosas, Haley Morgan, Jamie Villalareal, Bassett, Jeff Ramsey. Oh, it's, mister Ramsey. Okay. Katie Moore. Kyle Day. No. Kyle is here too. I see a few. Mu Yo. Mu Mu Mu Lu Car.
I don't see Porsche Hicks array plant. Vanessa Salinas? Alright. Veronica Marquez? Alright. So these individuals spent nine hours with us over the past, month learning about how our district operates from strategic planning and instructional design to school governance and financial stewardship. They went on a bus tour all around of Aurora, shared input with our leaders, and explored how we can work together to power the potential of our community. We look forward to having many of them volunteer and take on leadership roles throughout the district. Please, let's thank them for their time, their passion, and dedication to supporting Aurora Public Schools.
Thank you so much for your participation. Thank you for calling, please. Jeff, we'll finally get it to you. Okay. There you go. Alright. Let's give them another round of applause, please. There you go. Thanks for your patience. We had a big stack here. So, again, congratulations, community members. And, again, I can't express how appreciative we are of you taking the time to take four weeks out of your life to learn not only learn about the district, but also challenge us and push us with your questions and insights. So thank you again. And for those of you out there in the community, wondering, we'll do the same thing next year for additional opportunities for people to get involved.
And in closing, we have one more very important recognition. I wanna call mister Mark Seglen up to the dice, please. Is Mark in the room? And I hear you were told to wear your hat. Right? Okay. Alright. You're gonna have to tell us about that and the boots. There you go. Turn around so that you can so they can there you go. Alright. So it is my deep honor to recognize APS chief off chief operating officer, Mark Seglen. After six years of extraordinary service to our district, Mark is transitioning into his next chapter, and I wanna take a moment to reflect on a profound impact he has had
on our APS community. Mark came to APS with a distinguished record of service, including commanding a guided missile destroyer in the US Navy. I'm just gonna pause on that and give him some space on that right there. In addition to that, raising two remarkable sons who followed in his footsteps of service. Here in APS, Mark devoted his energy, his wisdom, and heart to our students, families, staff, and community members. He served in some of the most influential roles in this district as chief of staff, interim superintendent, and most recently, chief of operational services.
Mark has shown us what it means to serve with purpose, heart, and a side of humor. No matter how serious the topic, very true, there was bound to be a moment of levity. Mark, you've been a wonderful colleague, a mentor, and a friend to so many of us. On behalf of the entire Aurora Public Schools community, we thank you. While we will miss your commitment to service, common presence, and gift of storytelling, we hope you make that long awaited trip to Antarctica and enjoy many new adventures. Please know that you have left quite a legacy of service here in APS and throughout your storied career. Congratulations.
It's cold down. You shouldn't show this down exactly if you wanted me. I couldn't exactly sound better than a watch. Thanks. I did. Alright. Alright. Let's give him one more round of applause. Thank you, Mark. Sure. Yes, please. I could start singing, but no. I won't. I just wanted to say six years of of perhaps, some truly some of the most rewarding, times I've had in my entire life and I've had a very varied life. So, so many people in this room to thank. I certainly won't do that, but there is one person that I do wanna thank. She doesn't know it,
but she she's gonna get it, and that's Michelle Hbarra, who was my executive assistant for six years. And if you think about it, she had to put up with me for six years. So thank you, Michelle. Thank you, board. Thank you, everyone. Madam president president, that concludes the recognitions for this evening. Thank you so much. Superintendent Giles. Next on our agenda is opportunity for audience. Claudia will call audience members who have signed up to speak to the board tonight. And please remember that the board will not be responding to any comments this evening.
We'll also ask that as you address the board, you state your name and you limit your comment to three minutes. Claudia, do we have Yes, ma'am. We have four speakers this evening. Thank you. Could you please call them? Yes, ma'am. Our first speaker is Corey Tonjes. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. Good evening, madam president, board members, as well as the attending leadership team within the building. My name is Corey Tonjes. I've sat before you before back in April to talk about a proposal for classified
staff. I'd also like you guys to recognize that I am the same individual that got a recognition from you in 2023 for my leadership for speaking on behalf of classified, and basically anything that benefits them. I'm here tonight because I made a promise to classified staff that I would always look out for their behalf regardless of what happens to me. I'm going to hold that. I was the sitting president of the CEC for two years. I brought my son here, who is a graduate of this year from Rangeview, to show that you can stand up for what's right regardless of what targeting happens.
In April, when doctor or when miss Gerken had asked about the proposal, Brett Johnson, our CFO, had responded that there are have and have nots within districts in Colorado. If you look deeper into APS alone, there are have and have nots. I'd like to take you back to 2,020. Custodial was the most important department within our district. I know that because I was a supply specialist who worked along with Sturges and Jay and the manager to make sure we are ready for COVID. It seems that now they are no longer the important ones.
They are equal in size to nutrition, but yet they have one coordinator and one manager. They are being told that they need to work multiple sites if they are at, a service site such as this. I think that's unacceptable. I think it it's it's like we're just treating people who are are are important at the time and then forgetting them at you know, when they're not as important. Other things that I would like to also point out is sorry. Classified staff has been waiting for professional development for a very long time.
We started up last year. We didn't it took May or this year, we had, like, a three, I believe, and then it was cut short. Meanwhile, leadership team has been reported. Doctor. Campbell, the chief academic officer, went on 22 conferences from 22, 2023 to 02/2024. What leadership is that? If we have people that are on the ground that are literally running these buildings in these school district and yet leadership is out on constant conferences, I find that to be an issue. Another thing that has been brought to our attention is the hiring at transportation is
an issue. We have gone out and tried to talk to bus drivers. They don't understand English. According to federal regulation 49 CFR section thirty nine one dash one one, that is an actual, requirement. It has been taken out of our job description as well just now. I have all three of the previous ones. There is more, so I will come back at another meeting to discuss further. But thank you for your time. Thank you so much, sir, for being respectful tonight. Absolutely. Next speaker is miss Rebecca Finney. Tonight, I decided to just read from what I wrote back in January of twenty twenty
two. The Board of Education should require the district administration to come into compliance with state law and agreements reached regarding regulations of restraint and seclusion. In February 2020, I read a Chartbeat article where APS reported, to, responded to an open records request that they couldn't provide it because of they couldn't do it without revealing confidential information. At that point in time, the only thing that was required is that they count the numbers of incidents of
restraint and seclusion. So, you know, maybe hire a paralegal or something. It brought memories of egregious cases that happened in APS in 02/2006. One was, it wasn't settled until five years later in 2011 when the civil rights aspects were settled in the child's favor. In March of twenty twenty, I sent a letter to the board about it, but no one responded, and I doubt anyone read it. From what I've seen, APS is not tracking when restraint and seclusion is being used. A district that employs a lawyer,
has a lawyer on the board, and a lawyer as a superintendent should be aware of the law. As a longtime resident of Aurora, parent of three APS graduates knowledgeable about what happened in 02/2006, I want this district to comply with this law. Is it the superintendent's duty to comply with this law? If the board explicitly directs the administration to follow this law and collect this data, could not complying result in the superintendent's contract termination? I don't know how it is now, mister mister Giles,
but it used to be the superintendent's contract says he may be discharged for cause and included in the definitions of cause are neglect of duty and insubordination. So if you don't comply with what they tell you to do, is that insubordination? I don't know. Is it neglect of duty if you're not doing what you're supposed to do when it comes to restraint and seclusion? I don't know. I'm not a lawyer. I have been coming to board meetings for years now. My gut feeling is that the motivation of this district administration is not what is
best for the students, but what enhances financial interests of outside organizations and advances personal political objectives of individuals. This is a small tangible step that the board can take feasible because the district would come into compliance with a law to advance the interest of the students of Aurora Public Schools. Thank you. Thank you, miss Finney. Our next speaker is Efren Ortiz. Good evening. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes. Good evening, board. Efren Ortiz. Dear members of the APS Board of Education and District Leadership,
I come before you today to honor the life and legacy of one of my greatest mentors, a former supervisor and a dear friend, Kendalyn Cookie Hansen. Cookie was APS employee number 765. To put that into perspective, I recently hired an interpreter whose employee number is in the $176,000 s. That gives you a sense of just how much of a pioneer Cookie was in the district. She spent decades laying the foundation for authentic family engagement in APS. She helped establish the Okay program and EPAC, two initiatives that have empowered thousands of families through leadership,
advocacy and connection. She was a fierce advocate for family liaisons. In fact, district leadership knew not to mess with Cookie. Because at the end of the day, she always had the best interests of our families and students at heart. She was never afraid to stand up to principals, district leadership, or the politics at the moment. She was one tough cookie. I respectfully ask that the board to, ask the board to formally recognize, Cookie in the board minutes and to consider renaming the main room here at PLCC in her honor. This space used for professional learning was built in 2011 and originally named as part
of our VISTA 2010 strategic plan. The rooms were named after the highest peaks in the Rocky Mountains such as Mount Harvard, Mount Massive, but more importantly, it's where Cookie brought in thousands of families and liaisons where we learned, laughed, and built a true community. Naming it the Cookie Hansen Room would honor her legacy and the very place she helped bring life. I've worked in APS for nearly twenty years. My favorite role was being a family liaison because Cookie was always behind me lifting me up when I stumbled and pushing me forward when I was ready to grow. She's the reason I've stayed in this work.
I wasn't planning to speak today, but a message from a colleague made me pause. It said, hey, I just heard about cookie. I'm so sad and disappointed that APS did not send out anything. As valuable and as dedicated she was to APS for all these years and nothing. It makes me wonder if we really matter, right? Now, I understand that in a district with nearly 6,000 employees, it's not always possible to send a message every time someone passes. But I do believe we can find meaningful ways to honor those who've made an extraordinary impact. Whether through naming, a wall of service, or remembrance tradition,
we have options. We can do better and I believe we will. Let's make honoring our people not just a moment, but a practice. A culture where our values are visible and where people like Cookie Hansen are never forgotten. Thank you. Thank you. Our next speaker is Ashley Hall. Can one second, please. Audience, one second. I will be remiss if I do not recognize my former colleague and former board of education, director Michelle Ortiz. Thank you for your presence today. Please go ahead.
Good evening, members of the board. My name is Ashley Hall and I'm here tonight on behalf of families like mine whose autistic children are being harmed by Aurora Public Schools policy JLCDC medically necessary treatment in the school setting. This policy claims to support students but its current implementation contradicts Colorado state law and federal disability protections. It places unlawful barriers between children and the care that they need. Under Colorado House Bill 20 two-twelve-sixty, now codified as CRS section 20 two-twenty one-twenty one,
school districts must allow students to receive medically necessary treatment in school when prescribed by a licensed provider. But, APS distorts this by tying access to care to whether that care is also educationally necessary, placing the decision in the hands of an IEP or five zero four team instead of the clinicians who are actually treating the child. This is a profound overreach. Medical necessity is a clinical judgment, not an educational one. Yet, this school district gives internal teams, often unfamiliar with the child, power to override licensed providers.
That is both inappropriate and discriminatory. In my own son's case, after he was diagnosed with autism at age four, we followed our developmental pediatrics team recommendation and started ABA therapy. His board certified behavior analyst conducted an intake evaluation and prescribed thirteen hours of ABA therapy per week and he came alive with this therapy. And his dosage was reduced to ten hours a week based on his progress after eighteen months of consistent therapy. Over the course of three separate requests, the first of which was made the week we learned he was accepted to our
request for kindergarten in April 2024, APS excluded our BCPA from presenting evidence. The district instead relied solely on his own evaluation team, professionals who had never met him and do not have experience in ABA therapy. The voices of the people who know him best were ignored. It wasn't until I asked our pediatrician who does not treat him for ABA related issues signed a letter using data from our BCPA and presented it at an appeal hearing that our request was finally approved. That hearing was the first time our therapists were able to present evidence that Charlie
needs ABA therapy in school. He was finally approved and that approval came after a full year of unnecessary struggle and a very hard kindergarten year for Charlie. Because he had very limited access to ABA therapy during the school year, he regressed in behavior skills he had mastered before starting kindergarten full time. I have two twice exceptional children enrolled at Aurora Quest and I can tell you that giftedness does not cancel out disability. 2e students often fly under the radar or fall through the cracks because they meet
the minimum standard for FAPE and that may satisfy the IDEA but it does not mean that those students are safe, supported, or thriving and it does not excuse the district from following state law guaranteeing access to medical treatment. I urge you to amend policy JLCDC to remove the educational necessity gatekeeping, include students' private licensed providers like BCBAs in the decision making process, and align the district's practice with the spirit and letter of CRS twenty two-twenty one-twenty one because school should be a place where all children,
especially the exceptional ones, get what they need to grow and learn. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker for this evening is Dan McGarvey. Welcome. And you stay tuned in, and you have three minutes. This is Dan McGarvey. Good evening. My name is Dan McGarvey. I represent one of the two kids who were criminally charged for vandalizing Aurora West College Preparatory School in April of twenty twenty four. As previously stated in an email to all of you, I'm here to ask for reconsideration of the issue of restitution, which is $100,000
joint and several. I believe the board is in a position to reconsider my client's request to earn credit towards the amount of a $100,000 through community service hours and also by engaging in any kind of restorative activity. I believe there is room for creative outcome where the school is made whole and my client could satisfy any restitution requirements of a sentence from the juvenile court. Just to give the board a little bit of history about my client, first and foremost, he is a child.
We're not making this request on behalf of an adult. Rather, my client is 17 and he was 16 on the date of the offense. My client's life has not been an easy one. His mother passed away when he was four. His dad has been in and out of jail and prison and is not a stable figure in my client's life. His older sister, who acted more or less as a maternal figure, died last year of a drug overdose. Despite all of this, my client isn't giving up. He comes to court. He wants to be a contributing member of his community.
He's enrolled in online school next semester, and he's working at a fast food restaurant this summer. He has no prior juvenile delinquency cases. This case received extensive media attention given the level of damage. My client saw the news report, called the number listed for the assigned detective, and turned himself in. That does not happen in my world. He's been willing to resolve this case and wants to, but for the issue of restitution. I'm 42 years old. I have two careers pardon me. I have two degrees and a good career.
This would pose a major financial burden on me if I were in this position. Now imagine a 17 years old, even if the restitution amount is joint and several. This is the most amount I have seen sought in a juvenile case. I worry that this will hinder him for the rest of his life, especially since 8% interest will start accruing once he is 21 years old. The school absolutely has a right to seek the full amount of restitution, and I respect that. But juvenile court is about rehabilitation, and it's about about second chances.
To the extent that this is relevant to this board's analysis, the United States Supreme Court in a series of cases beginning with Roper v Simmons began to recognize that children are constitutionally different than adults. In Graham versus Florida, another US Supreme Court, the court stated because juveniles have diminished culpability and greater prospects for reform, they are less deserving of the most severe punishments. Our own Supreme Court has held the same sentiment and followed the same law, line of, of of analysis.
I hope that the same spirit of these cases will carry over to the board's consideration of this matter. Again, to the extent it's unclear, my client wants to make restitution. He's just asking for other ways to make it. I appreciate the board's time and consideration in this matter, and I would just note that the counsel for the other juvenile that was charged is also present and would like to address the board. Thank you. Thank you. Our final speaker for the night, Isabelle Briet. Welcome. Please state your name, and you have three minutes.
Good evening. My name is Isabel Bright, and I, along with my co counsel, who is also here tonight, represent the other child who was charged in this incident from back in February. This has been an ongoing case in in juvenile delinquency court. Our client consistently and proactively comes to court and asks if there is anything that he can do that he can offer as a child to make the school whole
and and to take accountability and to make this right. Our client has no prior juvenile adjudications. This is his first time being in trouble. This was the first time that he was allowed to go out and be on a sleepover. And, this is just a a life altering experience, and it has been for for the past year. The school has an absolute right to seek restitution. The my my client does not have an ability to make this whole by paying $100,000
or even half of that. What my client does have and what he can offer is he has anticipates that his his earnings over the summer when he is not busy being a full time high school student, he would want to dedicate those towards, you know, any monetary amount, that he can provide. I think that would be in the sum of several thousand dollars. However, his he has family who work as contractors. They have offered he, during his summer job, works as a contractor,
helping with projects. He has offered any and all of his time over the summer, to useful public service. If that feels more meaningful to the school, he would absolutely be willing to, contribute hours to the school. If it feels more meaningful to the school to have our client contribute useful public service community hours in other public spaces, he is very willing and and hopeful that that can be a resolution here and a path forward. So in the spirit of restorative justice,
we we are here to invite a solution that is realistic, that is feasible. Because $100,000 is is just not a path forward, that is going to lead, I think, to the accountability and rehabilitation that we are all hoping can finally put an end to this ongoing situation. So the Aurora Public Schools risk manager has not been willing to engage, in a a conversation that considers community service. And I am here tonight asking the board of education to participate in a conversation
where we can explore some kind of creative solution. Thank you. That concludes our speakers for this evening. Thank you so much, Claudia, and thank you everyone who have addressed the board this evening. We are going to move forward with the rest of our agenda. I would like to remind the board of our working agreement that is, attached to our agenda as we have pledged to abide by it. And, also, director Duncan, you will be taking, time for for the rest of this meeting. Now do I hear a motion for approval of the consent agenda?
I'd like to move that we approve all the items on the consent agenda. Do I hear a second? Second. It's been moved by director Gherkin, and I think I heard director Tasker? Yes. Thank you. Claudia, would can you please call, Will? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. Director Tom Wing? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. We are now going to move to our action item, and I believe,
the board of education will be presented with a recommendation to sunset blueprint APS blueprint and to allow the administration to to start the implementation of destination APS. Superintendant? Yep. Thank you, doctor Kiki. I don't know that I have a whole lot more to add. Each of you have seen the memo that was presented to the board regarding the request to support us in sunset and blueprint. Blueprint was originally designed in 2017 for a very specific and distinct purpose. We were going through declining enrollment and having to figure out how to repurpose some
of our buildings. I do believe that the district did a really nice job of moving, on delivering on the promise of blueprint. But here we are now in 2025. And last year, if you recall, we went back out to our community and did an assessment as to where we are with blueprint and the relevance of it. And we had a lot of great recommendations internally and externally, which we believe have been, rolled into our new strategic plan, DestinationAPS. And so, a lot of that feedback came from the community. We feel very strong about DestinationAPS moving us into the future, and we believe whatever elements of BlueprintAPS are still relevant right now.
Oh, they are a part of the district's, strategic plan. So that being said, we ask you to take action in supporting the sunset and the blueprint so that we're very clear that Destination APS is moving us forward. Thank you, superintendent. Board, the floor is open for a comment or discussion before we take action. Doctor Gerken. Let's try that again. I was part of the board that brought in Blueprint APS and, feel good about the work that it accomplished, and recognize fully that it's, time to move on and appreciate that all the elements that are still relevant have
been rolled over. So I would move that we go ahead and sunset blueprint APS. Thank you. It's been moved by the motion has been moved by director Gerken to sunset, Blueprint APS and implement, destination APS, and it's been seconded by director Duncan. Claudia, would you please call, though? Yes, ma'am. Director Carter? Aye. Director Duncan? Aye. Doctor Gerken? Aye. Doctor Kiki? Aye. Director Reinhart? Aye. Director Tasker? Aye. I'm sorry. Could you repeat? Aye.
Thank you. Director Tomlin? Aye. Thank you. Thank you, Claudia. And the motion passes. Congratulations. Alright. We are going to move, continue the meeting, and I believe we do have our lobbyist who will give us the wrap up update for, this legislative session. Welcome. Yes, ma'am. Thank you, madam president and members of board, directors, superintendent. So I'm gonna try to just go we talked about a lot of these bills, when I came to you through sessions.
I'm just gonna kinda gloss over what passed and what didn't pass that we worked on and on the issues that we were the most engaged on, and stop me at any time, ask any questions. Let me I'm here at your disposal. I would be remiss if I did not start just thanking superintendent and his senior staff for all of their help this session because I can't make this stuff up. And when we call and here's this issue, that issue, if it's legal, if it's policy, if it's fiscal, we get great answers, and that's what lets me do my job. So thank you. Thank you.
Thank you. I know you're really busy, and sometimes what I have to call about is kind of a pain, but I really appreciate the help. So, we adjourned May 7. Woo hoo. This year, we had 657 bills that went through. As opposed to last year, we had 705. So, you know, 50 bills, that's that's a big deal. I can't tell you why there were so many less, but I would say a lot of it had to do with the number of budget bills that went through. They're called orbital bills. They're not as substantive. They're used to balance the budget.
And, of course, the biggest cloud hanging over the 2025 session was, in fact, the $1,200,000,000 structural deficit shortfall that we had to contend with. A lot of its population, inflation being reduced, and how that impacts our taper cap, but it put pressure on all discretionary funding, which means if your bill costs money and it's not something that's already baked into the budget, it wasn't going very far, so a lot of great ideas were stopped strictly because of that.
But the major things that we worked on, obviously, School Finance Act. This year's thirteen twenty implemented last year's fourteen forty eight, which you all helped with in your outreach to our delegation and others. Thirteen twenty pretty much sticks to I'm sorry. Yes. The implementation, 13 twenty's implementation of fourteen forty eight, sticks to the principles that were grounded in that around at risk funding and other pieces that we were very supportive of, but we had to change the timeline. It was kind of a exercise in reality,
frankly, of what money we have to actually spend. So there's more of a graduated implementation, longer timeline on that. It is just a reality, but I'm happy, I think, it is good for the district that we stuck to the basic precepts of 1448 even if it's on a little bit of a longer trajectory, longer runway. I will tell you that we're not out of the ticket on this depending what happens with the reconciliation act and everything. It is Medicaid right now and protecting that.
Everything is going to be vulnerable depending on what happens with the federal bill and the impact that has on our budget, but for now I think we're in as good of spot as we possibly could have been. A lot of work went into that with your CFO, so please thank him as you're working on your budget too. The blur bill three fifteen, lack of a better word, yes, it did repeal assent two years from now, or one year now, one school year from now, but doesn't mean that the principles of assent necessarily are gone.
Three fifteen is setting up its revamping programs that were all over the place. If you look at current statute you basically have to have a matrix to understand what's concurrent enrollment, what's assent, what's early college, how do the workforce readiness bills, how in the world do these work together? The goal of this is to really go through phases of startup money, innovation money, sustainability, a lot of rulemaking is going to be over at the State Board. There will definitely be opportunities in the next couple years to fine tune this legislatively. So this was a budget issue. You all know that Aurora was ahead of the curve on this and when a
cent was passed we did the right thing and we got in there and we got these spots. A lot of districts did not and this was kind of just a smoothing out of how this works for the rest of the state but I still think there are opportunities not all is lost in this going forward. The immigration bill two fifty seven is another one between our legal counsel and policy staff. We gave a lot of input on this bill. At the end of the day it did pass very late in the session, a lot of changes were made to it.
There were some pretty significant threats to governmental immunity in the first drafts that were taken out, but you basically ended up with something you've already passed your policy. It is required for other districts to pass by September it is, you know, trying to stay in line with federal law which pretty much, you know, supersedes our power at the state level, but a lot of effort went into that one. We got involved late in the session in the AI bill, which failed. The sponsor went and killed his own bill. Without taking too much time tonight, this could be a special session topic or early next year.
K 12 in the past year did not get as involved in the AI bill. This is something that passed in 2024 to take effect in 2026. In the meantime, they were supposed to come back with a fix it bill last year. The fix it is things like if you use AI, it's a highly, it's a high risk AI system for consequential decision making, which includes education. Think about things like if you're using AI in a system for applications for early
childhood education spots, for weaning those out, what needs to be fixed in this is clarity on what is discrimination, what is not discrimination. You don't want to have a thousand people saying, boy I didn't get the school of choice that I wanted. Why? Tell me what your system did. That's not what this bill was set up for. It is for disclosure and anti discrimination, but it really needs fine tuning, so stay tuned on that. Your IT people were very helpful in really kind of digging through on that. When the sponsor went and killed his own build the last three days of session,
didn't do much about that. We tried. We have a last ditch effort on the floor, which, one of our members on this call tonight was very helpful with trying to help us on. Ran out of time at midnight. It's more of a story than I can tell tonight. The dyslexia bills and a bill 200 this one started out much more aggressive in terms of a mandate as well. This was an overwhelmingly bipartisan bill. Basically in twenty seven-twenty eight the districts need a universal dyslexia screener in place.
You figure out what you want to do. There's not a mandate of a vendor of how you do that it just needs to be compliant with the structure set forth in Senate Bill 200. We gave a lot of review and a lot of comments on that as well. Lastly the accountability bill, that's been five years in the making since the study started in 2021 and still has a long way to go, has made some at least positive tweaks to data and the accountability clock and some testing pieces, but it didn't go really far.
A lot of things it needs to do cost a lot of money, in terms of help per district, so I think it was good effort. There were 30 recommendations that went in from this three four year four year study. They attacked about 27 of them. Did they go all the way? They did not, But your team put a lot of work and effort into that as well. Those are kind of the main ones. You know, on the seclusion bill, we talked about that, that the bill that passed really was a restructuring in statute of where that went. It used to be seclusion for children.
The bill was applied to every type of, you know, human services, education, etcetera. The bill that passed, the name, twelve forty eight, structured that in k 12 specifically. It's an easier read. It didn't make major changes to the substance of current law. The bill that tried to do that failed. It didn't get out of committee. Those are the major things that we worked on. I can stretch my brain if you have specific questions about other bills in session. I may need your grace and have to get back to you on some because my brain kinda empties out after session is over,
but happy to try. Thank you, and thank our sister organizations, CASE and CASB, are really helpful for us too, so I don't wanna short that by any means. So 12:30. The implement the the camera the camera bill, the transportation stuff. School bus camera Yeah. Bill? That. And, I am not an expert on that one, so but I'm happy to answer. I know they what they tried to do on that is watered down and make it much more discretionary in terms of the parameters of what you can do on that as a pilot. But because we did not engage terribly on that Sure.
My partner Larry works on this on another piece. I'm happy to get anything I can from him on it. So tell me what you'd like me to find out, and I can turn it around to you and just I was just I was just wondering about the timeline and and how would the implementation of it even look like. We are doing, like, I know school districts are already doing something about it, but we know there is no funding. I mean, there's not enough money, and we're talking about all these cameras and all,
like Yeah. If you will give me the grace to get back to your staff by tomorrow morning, we'll need a better outline of it only because it was just not a top priority issue that I paid as much attention to. No. I I appreciate that. I mean, there's been so many unfriended and unfunded mandates this year. Right. It feels like, you know, districts are you know? So thank you for Yes. Everything you've done there. And, we'll see you next school year or next Thank you. Have a good summer.
Thank you. Thank you, Mary Kay. Right. Moving right along. We also did receive alright. So now that we have taken action on Destination APF, how about we hear a presentation about? And just for clarity, the the action was on sunset in blueprint, but we thought it'd be extremely important to share with you what destination APS is actually about in this this evolution of the strategic plan. We'd come to you before, told you we'd go on the community, identified values to identify priorities.
Well, now we're at the phase of mapping out what are the strategies and tactics that are gonna under, guard this this strategic plan and and move us forward. So Christy Imholt is here to share. You have the presentation. She won't go through every single slide, but she's gonna hit the high notes to make sure that you have a good understanding of of the plan. So thank you, Christy. And I think the presentation was already the the document was already sent to you. So, good evening, President Keiki, board directors, and community. My name is Christy Amholt. I'm the executive director of policy and strategy and excited to share with you more about destination APS.
Before we delve too much into the presentation, as superintendent Giles shared, this is really excited about this because it really comes from our community. It comes from all the engagement that we've done over the past eighteen months, and really is a result of that work and what folks are wanting to see to make us the destination district, here in Colorado. So I wanna take a moment to just thank our students, our staff, our families who took the time to provide input over the past eighteen months, and particularly many staff members who played really critical roles in taking that to really
further define what this work actually looks like, and how we will become the destination district. So this presentation is gonna provide you an overview of destination APS. You can go to the next slide, Claudia. And we'll I will hit some of the highlights of superintendent Giles shared, give you a little bit of the background, how we've developed it, but really focus mostly on what is the plan itself. And I'm happy to answer any questions at the end. So, Claudia, we can actually skip ahead to, I believe it's slide nine. So there's several reasons why we created a new strategic plan.
First has to do with context. Right? We know post COVID, there were a number of new needs that really emerged, in our district. There was also greater urgency to continue to make improvement. And with superintendent Giles coming on board bringing this vision for us to become the destination district, we saw an opportunity to really further define what the how we would become that. And that idea of becoming a destination district through multiple rounds of listening sessions, during the 2324 school year really, really resonated with our community in terms of,
what it would mean and what we the actions we would take to become that destination district. And through feedback, as you'll see here on the right, we heard a number of things. We heard a lot of the values that the community really wanted reflected in the new strategic plan. We also heard the importance of making sure that our new strategic plan, included many of our stakeholders. Our previous strategic plan, had not necessarily focused on the importance and the key role that staff play. And so really wanting to make sure we were we were focusing on all of our stakeholders. And then just the need for overall clarity around how many of the priorities set,
fit together so that we can be really moving and focused on our work moving forward. Go to the next slide, Claudia. And so this is what led us to create our new strategic plan, really focused on making sure we are grounded in the current values of our APS community that we've heard over the past eighteen months, guiding our collective work in a really focused and aligned way and attending to the needs of all our stakeholders. If we do that, then that'll help us become a destination district and achieve our vision that every student shapes a successful future. Go to the next slide, Claudia.
And go one more. Thank you. So, this is just an overview of the process that we went through during the 2324 school year, the number of listening sessions, the significant engagement, that we engaged with the community around. Next slide. And throughout this year, we've really been focusing on refining our strategic plan, continuing to gather input and feedback around what that implementation really looks like, and considering, through a variety of stakeholders. And then also really considering a number of the recommendations, some that you've heard of you've heard from the past,
some that you have been presented with or will be presented with shortly to really bring those recommendations from our student leadership count, council recommendations as well as our, district accountability and advisory committee recommendations, as well as, from our blueprint project assessment and then research, that we've engaged in with our partner TNTP around some of the opportunity makers. And so this has really helped us this year further define what those strategies are and work to get tighter and clearer and more narrow in what our strategies are.
Next slide. So let me share with you a little about what destination APS is, our with our strategic plan. Next slide. Our vision and our next slide, our mission stay the same. Right? Those are, board adopted. We will continue to work towards making sure that every student shapes a successful future. Next slide. But based on what we heard from the community through those listening tours, the community really identified five values that it saw as key values that it wanted to see, in our work. Relationships with strong communication and transparency, diversity,
equity, and inclusion, safety and security, engagement and academic supports, and support, respect, and appreciation. And what's nice is the board had identified and set a values through our guardrails, and those very closely and tightly align with the values that we heard from our community. So those guardrails serve as our accountability measures for making sure. Right? These are the accountability measures that you have laid out around those values. So they lay out, they match with the values we heard from the community to really lay out, and make sure that we're adhering to those values as we continue to support improved
academic achievement. Next slide. So based on those values and through the continued input, we as a district are focusing on, what we're calling, four priorities. Those priorities are really what we as a district are trying to accomplish to become a destination district. Those four priorities, you'll see two of them here on the slide. The first one focused on academic achievement and post secondary readiness, making sure that every student in destination APS achieves academic success and graduates prepared for individualized post secondary options of their choice, really trying to reflect that vision and that mission. Priority on making sure that every,
that every student, family, and staff member experiences a sense of belonging. As we've continued to engage with some of the research, this has become such a critical part and really foundational for making sure that we are driving improved student outcomes, and improving student achievement. Next slide. Our third priority really focused on safety. We heard that as a key value from the community and not just focusing on the physical safety, but also making sure that we are supporting the emotional and psychological safety of both our students and our staff in school and work environments.
And fourth and aligned with that feedback that we heard around making sure that we were thinking about staff in our strategic plan, really focusing our priority on a talented and diverse, staff choosing to work and stay in APS. So those are the four priorities that we're focusing on working towards. And you'll see here, we've identified, a set of key performance indicators on how we know we're making progress in each of those priority areas to become the destination district. And those, those key performance indicators clearly and closely align with the board goals and guardrails as
we said. You can see here in particular, the goals the key performance indicators to measure academic achievement and post secondary readiness closely, measured through our goals one, two, three, and four. And our collaborative inclusive community priority, our safety priorities, and our quality talent really measured through our guardrails. Those values that we have set and set are are important, and we have to ensure that we are protecting while working to improve student outcomes. Next slide. So the key strategies part. Right?
This is the part that folks are always most interested in. How are we gonna do it? What is the work we are gonna focus on to make sure that we are making progress towards those priorities and the board established goals and guardrails? So I wanna you may recall, I believe, when we shared some information in the fall or last summer, we actually started with 12 strategies. We've worked to really, as a leadership team, continue to get feedback and make sure that we are focusing on the the most high leverage strategies that will drive those improved outcomes,
and adhere to those guardrails. And so these are the six strategies that we have landed on, and I'm gonna spend a little bit talking through each one of those. Slide. One thing to remember is, like, a strategic plan. Right? This is not a one year plan. This is not a two year plan. This is a long term plan. Right? We are anticipating this taking about five years. And so what you will see is we are we will talk through for each of these strategies. We're really thinking about what is our future state, where are we trying to get to in five years when we become that destination
district, And then what are the steps we move to build towards that future state when we really are that? So thinking about this is what are the kind of moves, I used with our school leaders, kind of a train analogy, right? What are the stops we're taking along the way if if we were to take a train ride, right, to ultimately get to that destination, APS? So next slide. So our first strategy is focused on multi tiered systems of support with high quality instruction. We'll go to the next slide. So I'll tell you a little about for each strategy, a little bit about what that future state snapshot looks like,
and then what year one specifically will focus on as we work to really build out, and continue to strengthen this work. So in the long term, right, really focuses on every student having that supportive and culturally and linguistically sustaining learning environment, both academically, behaviorally, and social emotionally. And this is one of the shifts that really we're making is making multi tiered systems of support, really are, connected across behavior, social, emotional learning, and academics. And that part of that is really grounding in that high quality core instruction, that tier one instruction,
and that will be much of our focus for this upcoming school year. A real focus on implementing high quality culturally sustaining tier one instruction. What's new and different is really aligning that to a consistent instructional framework, the e squared tool. And that's where we where we've been heard from our community that we really wanna ask and define exactly what it is, that we are talking about when we talk about high quality instruction. As well as then really solidifying what does, a strong MTSS framework look like so that we are clear what are those expectations,
what does it look like for schools to implement so that going forward, they can be implementing and have that consistency across schools? We know many of our schools have strong MTSS, but how do we make sure we're consistent in all of our schools having that framework? Next slide. The second strategy, is really focused on p 12 college and career learning opportunities. This is where you'll see a lot of those connections and a lot of those, as superintendent Giles said, the the still relevant pieces of blueprint APS folded in here into those p 12 college and career learning opportunities. Next slide. And so,
looking ahead for what this looks like, really making sure that all of our students are graduating with that diploma and at least one valuable credential that will set them up for that future success. We wanna make sure that we continue, and have stronger tools to identify what students' futures, what those futures are, and that they have the right are are set on the right courses and the right pathways to be able to access those, those futures and continuing to make sure that we're engaging in real career focused, curricula and providing more opportunities to students to explore what that is and experience what
that is. So next year, we'll particularly focus on our implement on, strengthening our transition plan for eighth to ninth graders, which really nicely connects to the tran the our the board's focus on ninth grade equity, as well as then really strengthening, what is in place and what are the consistent experiences that students have, sixth through twelfth grade, as we think about, what those milestone experiences are that will help them explore and experience careers so that we can know that every student has access to,
specific college and career opportunities throughout their their secondary experience. Next slide. Our third strategy is focused on schools as community hubs. Really making sure that our schools are becoming, more vibrant centers of community life. And you can see here this graphic really focused on the five pillars that have been defined around what makes what makes a school a community hub. I think something that's important to name is sometimes we think of community hubs as a very physical space and a concrete. We're using the term hub here much more in the sense of a hub as
a bicycle like a connector. And so I think that's helpful to name. So our schools as community hub strategy, if you, wanna go to the next slide, Claudia. We'll really focus on five pillars and making sure that all of our schools over those years are building and continuing to make sure all five of those pillars are in place. Those five pillars and the one will start, those five pillars are a culture of belonging, safety, and care, expanded and enriched learning opportunities, comprehensive, support services, strong family partnerships, and community voice and shared decision making.
These are designed, right, to really support that sense of belonging for our students and our families and our staff as well as then it will continue to also support that sense of psychological safety. This upcoming school year, we will focus on really that first pillar around that culture of belonging, safety and care, making sure that's that schools are really deeply focusing on how can they enhance that sense of belonging. Because as we said and as the research shows, that's such a critical piece. And that is one of the first pieces that, some of the most recent research says in order to be a game changing school,
we need to create that sense of belonging, including academic belonging for our students. And so that will be the focus for our schools on this strategy for next year. Next slide. Our psychological safety, safety practices and resources strategy. Next slide. We're really we will continue to work to really define, what define a framework around what psychological and emotional safety, means for all of our students building off of the four dimensions of psychological safety named here and really making sure that we are clear on what this means to
students, hearing from students, hearing from families, what does that mean, what does that look like. This nicely pairs and connects, right, with our community hub pillar of belonging, safety, and care in service of that psychological safety. And some of the work we'll engage in next year is our implementation of our climate and culture coordinators, to really support making sure we are proactively creating those, psychologically and emotionally safe spaces as and supporting that climate and culture as well as making sure those resources are there. This, strategy in particular,
I think, provides us a great opportunity to incorporate many of the recommendations we heard from our district student leadership council around how we can better communicate, the, information around student mental health, how we can help make sure students are aware, and how we can support creating that, those psychologically safe spaces. Next slide. Our fifth strategy, robust talent acquisition, really continuing to strengthen our talent acquisition so that we are attracting, remarkable continuing to attract remarkable talent, bringing them in, recruiting them, hiring them,
and onboarding. Next slide, Claudia. And so really strengthening to make sure that we are taking a unified approach for district recruitment for all roles, improving that visibility, into application. Right? We wanna, we wanna snatch up, staff as, quickly as possible and the best staff. And so making sure that we are strengthening this work. And so we'll really focus on, strengthening some of those talent acquisition processes next year, increasing and strengthening our recruitment, as well as making sure we have a strong onboarding process so that when folks come in,
right, we're starting that retention piece right when they walk in the door. And finally, our last strategy really focused on talent development for employee excellence and retention. And this particular strategy really focuses on, three components around talent development. One, making sure that we're providing that professional learning to staff so that they can excel in the roles that they are currently in and they have those tools and skills that are continuing to develop. This being across all roles, licensed, classified, as well as admin PT, making sure that folks have the opportunity to grow,
if they desire, grow into different roles or continue to grow in their existing roles, as well as then really thinking about some systemic retention strategies that we can implement as a district to really support making sure folks, come to APS and stay in APS. Next slide. And so I just talked through some of those pieces, but really focusing on making sure that we are, growing our staff. We'll focus next year on really codifying, our professional learning and making sure that, we're continuing to enhance and develop professional learning plans for all of our staff,
as we continue to move forward, as well as designing some initial aspiring, cohorts for, for, leaders both in assistant principal career pathways as well as in managerial pathways. So those are our six strategies. It's obviously a lot of work and a lot of work we will engage in over the next year. But what is exciting is the, involvement of staff, the involvement of community in creating this, and folks feeling like they they see their work and are really coalescing around this work so that we can all work together,
to move towards becoming destination APS. Happy to take any questions. Thank you so much, Christie. Board, the floor is open for questions or comments. Director Tamwee? I just wanna say thank you. This is amazing. I love how you connected everything from the beginning of how we started. We got the, the goals and guardrails from community outreach. I particularly like the you know, when you spoke about career readiness and just making sure that our students are exposed to, different career paths and options, because I think that's one thing I know a lot of our students don't necessarily
know what they wanna do, right, until much later on in life, right, and including myself. And so and so, setting them up for success, knowing that they can be exposed to multiple different options, and learning not not only what they like but what they don't like, what their interests are, I think, is is equally important. And that's clearly, you know, listed here as part of, you know, as part of one of the strategies. And then you brought in everything from making sure our students are being heard, as part of decisions throughout the process, and, of course, our staff and investing in them, our teachers, and their growth and development.
So this is a lot of work, I know, but thank you to you to you and the leadership team. Any other question or comment? Sure. I don't have a question, but I just just to say, again, thank you. I mean, the, the results of this, and the fact even, I think you made it really clear that we started with 12 big ideas and reduced it, did some fine editing, to six still big ideas, but with, with a road map or a train map,
that is gonna get us there. So thank you. And thank you for your presentation. Yeah. All I'd like to add to it is, you know, let's make sure that academic outcome is not lost in everything else. I think, when blueprint APS was being updated, we were just getting on the board, and I said the same thing. Right? Everything is equally important. But when a parent, a professional, moves into a city and they have kids, they look at the performance of the district before they make the decision where they're gonna purchase their home or where they're gonna
move in. So with that in mind, I just wanna make sure that, yes, there is an understanding that we care about everything, but I hope that, the academic piece is not lost in everything else. So, Trenton, it? Thank you, madam president. I echo your your your sentiment around ensuring that academic outcomes are, are a central focus, and I I would argue and guarantee you that it is. The the the additional priorities that we added to it are so that we can create the conditions for our students to show up and and be, you know, their best selves and and to thrive.
So thank you for that. I just wanted to recognize Christie for being kind of the the person the facilitator who has brought a very robust cross divisional team together to move this forward. I mean, if you could see how she works endlessly to bring different people from across the system and the, the evidence in what I believe is gonna help us be successful is I get feedback across the system over and over that people are not just buying in, but they're feeling some sense of ownership, which we know is extremely important. So just wanna thank you and the entire leadership team,
and those who contributed to this. So thank you. Thank you, Christy. Alright. Moving on to the, the rest of the presentation in the in, the information item. Any questions at all on, Sixth Avenue or Jack? Yeah. I'm gonna move on to board work. Good job. And I will turn it over to director Duncan and director Tom Wing for update on policies. Oh, just grabbing just grabbing some water. But, yeah, the director Duncan is actually gonna present,
our policies this evening. Oh, thank you. So, so we went over these policies a couple weeks ago. Some of them, we did we made no edits to. And director Tom, will you please chime in? Mhmm. I think BID, we made no edits too. Yeah. Because I know, Claudia, you know me, Ab, if there's any updates. Right? Oops. Yeah. Document? Yeah. There's so many of these. Hold on. Sorry. Hold on. I'm going through it right now. Updates. So BHCR is the first one I see with edits. Which one? BHCR. Yep. That sounds about right. Yep. Yeah.
They were just minor minor changes to some of them was mainly just to simplify the, language on them. But majority of them, yeah, they weren't any edits to them. They were pretty straightforward. So if you guys have any questions, and as doctor Duncan was saying, the first one would be, b h c r. Yeah. It's the first one that had edits. Yes. We're talking about DHCR? Yes. Board communications with staff. Okay. Any questions or comments on that? I'm assuming, the district league will also put an eye on it. Right? Would it be okay?
Yeah. We're good? Yeah. Alright. I think the next one is b e d h. Yep. Public participation at board meetings. Yeah. I think we just kind of met, added their designee because and for the rare occurrence in which the president's not available, that they would have someone as a designee on their behalf. And that could be, like, the vice chair. Should we name it or just leave it designate I mean, in in the absence of the president, the vice in the absence of the chair, the vice chair is supposed to Yeah. I think the conversation was more of if if you didn't feel comfortable
then or if you weren't here and the personnel was designated or the vice president didn't feel comfortable? Just give that flexibility. Give that Yeah. Okay. Mhmm. I Go ahead. I'm just I'm not sure what, what you wouldn't feel comfortable about, I guess. But but I think it's fine to say designee. I mean, I I I think that's fine. Yeah. So this this was talking about public comment and the reading of participants' names and Oh. Public comment and how certain people may or may not feel comfortable enough pronouncing the names of people at public comment.
Right. So then that's all I need. Helpful for me. I mean, I that's why I say I I think that's I I don't have any problem with it. I just was trying to Yeah. It's just that flexibility to that person can check and And and you were not anyone. Out about when we We did not think of you during our discussion. Okay. Yeah. So we good on that as well? So if we can scroll to that, I just wanna make sure we talk about the bottom of page one. Same. Same. Documents? So, yeah, b b e d h. Yes. Uh-huh. If there are a large number of persons who sign up to speak on a
single topic Oh, yes. The president or designee may require that the group select representative speakers and come comment for no more than fifteen minutes. Yes. Currently, it is still fifteen minutes. And I and and I understand also, in in in our rules and and regulations, there is no yielding time to other speakers in the in the group. So it's fifteen minutes collective. Correct. Correct. Okay. If you have any No. I would just just wanna make sure that we all knew about this particular partner
policy. Then that way, when we have controversial topics come up for public comment, then we ensure that the public knows that this could be implemented right here too. Yeah. I would say that if there's if there's this time when there could be two side that two groups, a pro and a con group where you Mhmm. Just to make sure we're giving equal time. Equal time. For sure. That was all for that one. But we don't need to add that to the file. We don't need to write that language right now. I don't think so.
Okay. Moving on to the next. I think it'd be e d g. Yep. And this one was just simplifying the wording at the beginning. It should not have changed the essence of what was trying to be said. No. I'm just simplifying the language. Mhmm. Any comment on that? Bearing none. Alright. That will go to, Oh, if you have any No. I'm gonna. It goes to our consent agenda for August? For August. Correct. And then and then in the mean meantime, we know next month is recess. You guys don't have to meet if you don't want to,
but if you're overachiever, by all means. We are overachievers. By all means. I mean Really good progress. So thank you, director Duncan, for partnering up with this. It's made it less, less pain painful. Yeah. Yes. Appreciate the support. Most definitely. Thank you for for the work. Okay. Item b, the superintendent did complete the, the the smart goal document that our coaching, was asking, and here it is. It's just for your eyes, and that's gonna be in our executive content as well moving forward so that you
have it all in one place. You can open it when we are doing data monitoring, result monitoring, and here it is. Any comment on that? The only thing the only comment I have I I don't know if it's me, but I thought we have extended all of the goals to till next year. So it shouldn't be August of twenty twenty six for each of the go so when we read the goals. Thank you. Hey, everyone. Just a reminder, this was a conversation we had at the,
progress monitoring meeting. So they have been extended. And just to stamp that these, smart goal aligned initiatives are in hindsight for the 2425 school year. And so what we will do if you all want us to create something like this for 2526 to to let us know. I think that was one of the questions you all, were were grappling with at the end of the last, board discussion. What we would do in that scenario is create board aligned initiatives that,
SMART goal aligned initiatives that reflect the the the the targets for 2026. Yeah. So, another example too. We were, just had a great presentation from from, Christine, the superintendent on Destination APS and we talked about our focus areas for this upcoming school year. And so, what you would see are SMART goal aligned initiatives that reflect our focus on high quality, Tier one instruction on the, implementation of the pillar, for belonging, safety and care and then also for the eighth to ninth grade transition work.
So if I can, just to stamp what Doctor. Rodriguez, alluded to is that, I guess, the question is we presented this as a model under the guise of, coach Greg from, the Council of Great City Schools. During the last discussion, you all weren't really sure whether you wanted to you wanted to see a model before you can make a decision. So this is that model, and then you can determine if you wanna use it or not. And then if so, it will look just like this with the goals that are gonna guide us through 2526. I also wanna say it's not a matter of using it or not. We're already using it. It's just putting it in one place,
and it's there instead of flipping different pages while trying to figure out questions and all of that. That's all it is. So if we say it's a go, it's still gonna sit in our executive content. And and what you're saying is then we're gonna it's gonna the dates are gonna be tweaked as we go and as the goals change as well. Yeah. Any questions or comments? Those online? K. How do we feel about that? It seems to make sense to me that it's all in one place.
Mhmm. Mhmm. You can see how it's all aligned. Yep. You know, revise this for next school year. And then if the board sees that it's a very useful tool, then continue it. And if it hadn't if it wasn't as helpful as you thought it might be, then make the changes that would make sense after trying it out for a year. Yeah. And thank you. Thank you so much, doctor Rodriguez. Alright. So Claudia will put that in our executive content along with, our working agreement. And then I wanted to bring to your attention,
colleagues, the, the upcoming election. You know, that this is in, foresight, and our legal team, brought that to our attention. We traditionally, we do invite those who are interested to run, for school board to, so we can meet with them and, give them a little bit of an overview of how, you know, the work is and why we are sitting behind these days and all. And so there is a document attached. So this year, what I wanted to do is something a little bit more purposeful.
So I ask I I work with with Brandon, and, we put this agenda together. So the date for this is already set in stone. Right, Brandon? So, yes, we we've reserved July 17, as the date for the presentation. This is the presentation that I think all of you have probably participated in, my paralegal and I give the nuts and bolts presentation how to do this. And then we typically invite some of the board members to, you know, add on to the presentation about the experience of being a board,
a board member. So, yes, July 17, I expanded on that answer, but July 17 is the date. Alright. So we cannot change the date, but we can change the agenda, some of the agenda pieces. So is there anything there that you, don't want? Or, the way I see it to make it meaningful and purposeful for those who are interested is that the superintendent join us. It's definitely optional for board members. We all don't have to come,
but it will be nice to have all of us. And and then, superintendent wants to, you know, introduce himself, and then we will move on to Brandon doing his presentation. Brandon and his team doing his presentation. And then, this year, I wanted to use the model that other districts are using, like LPS and GEFCO and one other district. I can't remember. They invite CASB to come. And kinda do, like, a give a profile of a school board member,
type of thing, which I found really fascinating when I saw the, the presentation. So I invited Matt, who is also a past board member here. He served here and works like to to to come in and and do that part of the presentation. And then, we would dive into our regular, you know, why why we ran and and the time commitment that it takes and the pros and cons of sitting behind here. Definitely does have some pros and cons,
and sometimes requires a lot of patience. Mhmm. But it will be interesting. I think it'll be fun. I think that's how Debbie would put it. It'll be fun, every time to remind ourselves why we ran, right, in, giving our own perspective, to people who wanna do the same thing. And and then we'll then dive into, board space APS board specific, like, job description, like, what APS board members do, how we monitor, you know, talk about our governance model a little bit and and things like that.
I don't know how that sounds to you all. Sounds good. I I like that you've invited Matt Yes. To cook. Yeah. He'll he'll he likes that. He's good at that. Very good. It will be good. The one thing, and I don't maybe it's in here Yeah. In it somewhere Mhmm. Is I think that new potential board members should know the difference between board work and superintendent work. Alright. Yes. Matt will will go over that. Yeah. Any other comment, suggestion? I was just curious, Brandon, about the presentation detailing how to run.
What would that highlight, like, summarize, Keith, what that looks like? It's kind of the nuts and bolts, picking up packets, circulating petitions. The logistics of The logistics. Yeah. It's been two years. You already forgot? It's a long time. I I don't forget that. That was Actually, Brandon had to remind me because I was like, I don't remember doing that. He's like, oh, yeah. You did. You were there. But, anyways okay. If that sounds good, I had already connected with Matt and all he, he and he blocked that that date and the time.
He just wanted confirmation. So I'll have maybe Claudia reach out with a calendar invite, and we'll be good to go. Is this a presentation that he's doing? What is a profile of a school board member? I don't know if I've ever read a profile of a school board member. It's just a title. It's just a presentation kinda talking about, what a good school board characteristics of a school board member and the lane of the school board and the lane of the superintendent and how,
they work. Interesting. It's it it is really very, interesting in a positive way. He does that for Littleton Public Schools. He does that for, I I wanna say, GEFCO. Another one, in the mountains that they really like it in every year. Every time there's an election, he does that. Yeah. He think he's not in a CASB itself too. I mean, he's intended a little bit of that cash in the first year, I was there. So he would get a bridge version of that. And he would talk a little bit about meetings and all that good stuff. Any suggestion directed into?
Right. Okay. Thank you so much. Just for clarification as we go forward, continue to be the point of contact with you, president Kiki. I'm sorry. I couldn't hear you. Just to finalize the agenda and make sure we have volunteers for each portion, you would continue to be the point of contact for finalizing the agenda? Yes. K. Thank you. Unless someone wants to take over. I don't mind if director Gherkin wanted to lead that. To do this. What's that? Said you, madam president. Yes. Thank you. Ex officio.
Okay. Yes. Alright. And then I want to encourage everyone to continue to, take a look at our community engagement and start contacting folks and getting on their calendar. It it as time go by, it it gets harder and harder. Debbie had a little bit of a hard time in her own, Well, it's just hard to get on calendars. Yes. I mean, it's just the outreach ones particularly. Especially on the They're scheduled up. In the summer. Yeah. A lot going on. So and and please let's make sure that we fill that out.
I'm confident that we can do it. And, yeah, when we come back in August, we'll finish that and have all of the analysis. I have already started asking people to fill out every time I go out. So, doctor Kiki, I added some notes to that spreadsheet recently. If anybody's available, July 9. It's a Wednesday night at 6PM at the Meadowood Neighborhood Church, which is right down the street from Dartmouth Elementary School. We will present and have thirty minutes or longer at the neighborhood association meeting there.
I will be there. I'll go for that one. Talked with miss Browning about CEAC. She believes that's a good idea, but I think there'll probably be a survey because they'll just be reconvening in August or September. Cool. She would like that group to to hear about this. Mhmm. And Aurora Mental Health, I'm waiting for Kathy Wildman to get back to me on their September meeting. There she believed their August agenda to be full, and that's all noted on the spreadsheet. Absolutely. Thank you so much. I've reached out to
the chamber, and they're willing to accommodate, give us some space or some time, the July meeting. They would like to have the the survey and the presentation in advance. And then, Interfaith Church as well, have this summer stuff, kickoff, and they would like for us to come and also come and say hello to their board and talk with them. And, I also reach out to the ministerial alliance, and they're willing to give us some time as well. So I'll update my my part as we move on.
Okay. Any other comment or questions? One last question before we adjourn. I wanna make sure that, the, greet and meet with potential board members is advertised. I don't know how that's gonna happen since forgot to ask that question so that people know and it's out there and they come. Thank you, Brandon. So our understanding is that it was already notified to the the the people who participated in the leadership training, which is a a great, opportunity. We'll continue to work with our communications department to make sure it gets noticed and
sent out, the website. Patty's the expert on this, but we every year, we work with the communication team to make sure it get out gets out there, and we do usually get a pretty good turnout. So Alright. Yes, please. Have we done the back of the sentinel with that? Okay. Awesome. Then we have a standing page usually. So Yes. Alright. Thank you so much. Questions, comments regarding anything? Hearing none. So our next meeting will be July at 6PM.
It is optional, but it's still gonna be on the calendar just in case. But our next real, real meeting as in board meeting will be August 5. So we are adjourned. We are in on recess for July. I wanna use that opportunity to thank everybody this year starting with my colleagues, board members. Thank you for your leadership. Thank you for showing up. Thank you for your time. This year was different, but I look forward to the next school year.
I cannot, thank our teachers enough, for all that they do and all that they put up with. Thank you so much for your patience, for your love to our students and your hard work superintendent most definitely, your leadership. And, I am excited for next school year now. Cheers. Thank you. Thank you. If I can just have the minutes reflect that we spent sixty five minutes on board business. Thank you. That and can you also lead us to to adjourn with a motion?
A second. Second. It's been moved and seconded, and we are adjourned at 8PM. Good night, everybody. Good night. Thank you.